The great problem with covering Santa Clara County government is that most of the issues are tooth-achingly complex, removed from the concerns of ordinary people.

If you dismiss the verbiage and heed the politics, however, the county can offer a fascinating contest now and then.

Take Supervisor Joe Simitian’s attempt to pay down the gaping unfunded cost of health care for retirees.

The ordinance would have required the county to increase the sum it puts aside for retiree health care every year for five years. In year five, Simitian says, the extra amount would be $78 million, a payment that would continue for 30 years.

This is real money. Think of it as paying down a credit card. But in a shifty last paragraph that Simitian did not want, the law on Tuesday’s agenda took back what it offered to do.

That paragraph said the law was “not intended to limit the budgetary discretion of the board of supervisors” to allocate lesser or greater amounts if the board judged it best.

Put another way, if the board decides that it wants to take the money and use it at Valley Medical Center or on revamping the jail — hey, sweet.

Clear divisions

In that moment, you could see the divisions of a board dominated on one end by Cindy Chavez and Dave Cortese and on the other by Simitian.

A former state legislator now in his second stint as a supervisor, Simitian can sometimes give off the vibe of a college basketball player who’s returned for workouts at his high school gym. He should be in Congress. But he makes a solid fiscal argument. His mother was a math teacher.

“If we can get our act together and get this going, we’ll be saving $50 million a year for 30 years,” said Simitian, arguing that the system is only 12 percent funded now.

The labor-friendly board majority of Chavez, Cortese and Board President Ken Yeager, however, voted for the shifty paragraph, saying they wanted more flexibility.

Flexibility

“I don’t want us to set a benchmark that may or may not be realistic,” said Chavez, who was recently elected to fill the seat of the disgraced George Shirakawa Jr.

All the supervisors except Mike Wasserman, who joined Simitian, are Democrats. But the vote highlighted the gulf in their outlook toward other county services and unions.

Cortese, running for San Jose mayor with the expected support of the unions, is not in the best position to be a hard-liner on fiscal decisions that could hurt them. He suggested a slower payment schedule and questioned actuarial estimates.

Committing yourself to paring down the credit card means saying no to other needs: You might have to decline to give more to VMC or demand more from employees.

Simitian, who served on the board when the county’s fiscal situation was far stronger, wanted to make that commitment firm. “We’re in a damn leaky boat now,” he said. “Right now, we’ve got to bail water as fast as we can or we’re going down.”

Who’s right on the merits? Simitian. But you can see what he’s up against politically in trying to bind his colleagues. In the end, his law was a salute, not a commitment.